


A Token Gift

by Veail



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas market, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28203681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veail/pseuds/Veail
Summary: Marinette has a mission. To buy a very special gift at her school's charity christmas market.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32
Collections: December 2020 - Advent Calendar





	A Token Gift

“Okay, so the replacement stock is underneath the table. Ivan will be here in half an hour to take over for his turn and the list of times and contact numbers for everyone who signed up to be involved in staffing is under the cash box.” Marinette spun in a circle, tapping a finger against her lip. She was sure she was forgetting something. Alya rolled her eyes and slapped a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. 

“Chill, Girl. You’ve got it covered. This will be the best charity stand at the market by far, and you know it.” 

Of course she knew this. It didn’t stop Marinette from fretting though. College Francois Dupont held their charity Christmas market every year on the last Thursday before the school broke for Christmas. Each class had a table to stock and decorate and there were prizes to be awarded at the end of the day. Marinette had her eye on the ones for ‘Best Decorated Stall’ and ‘Most Money Earned For Charity’. 

Nathaniel had been commissioned to paint a Christmas frieze around her table, the surface of which had a layer of fluff stapled to it to simulate snow. Max had created a small Polar Express, which circled the outer edge of the table once a minute. The rest of the class had either chipped in with money or time to create the stock. 

The market opened after lunch and would run right through until 22:00. Teachers and students alike would be there to chaperone and man the stalls and the courtyard doors were open to the public. Marinette had drawn the short straw to be stall-holder for the first half-hour in the afternoon, but at least she was lucky enough to have Alya for her buddy. No one ever wanted the first shift, when all the best items were still there. It was a well-known fact that the quality of the items for sale went down exponentially with time and Marinette was hoping to tick off a couple of friends’ Christmas presents from this day. 

Speaking of gifts. That was where her greatest prize lay this year. 

“You’ve got it safely stashed right?”

Alya rolled her eyes again. Marinette was going to have to ask her to tone that reaction down, it wasn’t as subtle as Alya obviously thought it was. “Would you just calm down, seriously.” Alya tapped her foot against a box stacked underneath the table. “It’s here, ready to go out as stock as soon as your shift is finished. Not sure why you want it though, apart from the obvious of course. I think we found the one thing that Sunshine can’t do well.” And she grinned a wicked grin with no malice behind it. 

Marinette just sighed, already lost in her own imaginings. Adrien’s gift, made by Adrien’s hands. She’d be there at the stall to buy it. He’d walk up, see her. they’d laugh, talk, he’d ask her to share a drink. Their eyes would meet and it would be _coup de foudre_ all over again. They’d get married, have three kids and a hamster, which they’d name – 

“Jeez, Girl, where do you go when you do that?” Alya was looking impressed. “Come on, shake a leg. The market’s open, time to get charitable. And who knows,” she glanced at her phone, “Maybe a superhero or two will drop in to boost the ratings on our little market.” 

“I seriously doubt that Ladybug will be coming here. Wait. You didn’t—” Marinette grabbed Alya’s phone and flipped it so it was screen side up. “You posted this on the ladyblog?”

“I had charitable thoughts in mind, Girl.” Alya beamed. “Could you imagine it? Ladybug and Chat Noir at our little market. Attendance would go through the roof. Well, if we had one.” 

Marinette straightened up, turned to face Alya, and slowly and deliberately rolled her eyes. Alya laughed. 

… 

The first half hour flew. Marinette was happy with how quickly their items were being bought by the people wandering in from the courtyard. Their class theme had been family and so there were a multitude of items ranging from photo frames with various family titles on them, to little home made soaps with dried flowers inside. A few of their class members had shown up to chat and buy things. Not Adrien though; Marinette had been keeping watch but so far she hadn’t seen his distinctive blond hair in the crowd while she fake browsed. 

She’d been finished now for ten minutes and was preparing to go back to their stall in order to buy the gift that Alya would have now added to the top stock when a sudden cheer went up from the people in the courtyard. Turning to see what was going on, she caught a glimpse of a certain black, leather-clad hellcat partner currently vamping for the crowd while balanced on the end of his baton twenty feet in the air. 

There was a glint around his neck, which she could see was gold tinsel, and a red santa hat on his head. 

Trust her kitty to get into the Christmas spirit. 

He was down on the ground now and the crowd was going wild. Marinette sighed and opened her clutch to look down at Tikki, who was midway through a cookie. “Can’t leave him alone for a minute, can I?”

Tikki swallowed her mouthful of cookie. “You know, Marinette, showing up at a charity event isn’t something I would say was a selfish reason for using a miraculous.” 

Well, if even Tikki was for it then who was she to say no. “Okay then.” Marinette smiled, guess Alya would be getting her wish after all. Darting off into a corridor she made a break for a good spot (damnit chat) to transform. 

… 

If the shoppers went crazy when they saw Chat, then the reception Ladybug got was out of this world. Cheers, chants, screams… it was enough to give her second thoughts. Marinette had never enjoyed this part of the superhero gig at all. But then Chat was there, to drape an arm over her shoulders and grin widely. His shopping bags bumped her leg, he’d been a busy cat already. 

“Come and try this amazing hot chocolate, Milady. Seriously,” was he bouncing, oh god, he was on a sugar high, “it’s got actual candy canes in it! It’s to die for.” 

And he was guiding her out of the crowds. 

This was going to be a nightmare.

…

She had a blast. 

They drank hot chocolate and ate fudge, tried some sort of weird concoction of German sausage wrapped up in an English Yorkshire pudding and smothered in gravy, which was surprisingly delicious. They stopped at every little stall to admire the wares and danced on the small dance floor in the centre of the courtyard. Chat even sat down at the old, battered, upright piano that Ivan and Kim had pushed out from the music room that morning, and belted out a couple of classic rock and roll Christmas songs. 

And suddenly, it was three hours later and she turned a corner, finding herself in front of a very familiar stall. Her heart dropped. 

Adrien’s hand-made gift was long gone. 

… 

“I’m sorry, Marinette.” 

“It’s okay, Alya. It wasn’t your fault.” 

“I should have put it back under the stall again but when Chat showed up…” 

Marinette drooped a little bit more and pulled the blanket she’d wrapped around her shoulders a little tighter. Her grip on her phone was white knuckled. “I know. It’s alright, honestly.” 

“Girl…” 

“I should have gone back.” She shrugged, even though Alya, on the other end of the phone, couldn’t see her. “I got distracted too.” This earned her a small snort. “Yeah, yeah.”

“I have to go, sorry, Marinette. I’m babysitting Ella and Etta and they’ve gone really quiet.” 

Marinette laughed, and if it was a little bit of a wet, sad sound neither of them commented on it. “Okay, Alya. See you in school tomorrow.” 

“Christmas break is coming, whoo.” 

“Whoo.” 

“Okay you little brats, what have you done now. You better not have… My makeup!” 

Marinette laughed as she ended the call. Alya always knew just what to say to cheer her up. She stood to lean her arms on the balcony railing and smiled at Tikki. “It was a silly idea anyway, wasn’t it.” 

“It’s not silly at all, Marinette. You wanted something that the boy you loved had made. You’re so crafty yourself it’s only natural to see value in something like that from another person.” 

Marinette pulled a face. “But the problem is… he didn’t make it for me. He made it for charity. He probably didn’t even think of me at all, once, while he was making it.” 

“Does that lessen its value?” Tikki swooped down a little to sit on Marinette’s shoulder. 

“I feel like it should.” Oh man, she was so far gone for that boy sometimes it was ridiculous. “But… _Adrien_.” 

Tikki giggled. 

Marinette threw one arm out in an all encompassing gesture. “He made it with his own two hands, Tikki.” 

“I know, Marinette.”

“And it was such a sweet idea.” 

“I know, Marinette.” 

“He picked the colour scheme for the paints so well.”

“Marinette.” 

“And I think he didn’t even use a stencil. I wonder if he’s had calligraphy lessons too.” 

“ _Marinette!_ ” 

“It wouldn’t surprise me. I mean, he’d need to have good handwriting for the future, wouldn’t he.” 

“Hi, Marinette.” 

“Eep!” 

Marinette jumped, swinging out wildly at the _very-much-not-Tikki’s-voice_ which had come from her left shoulder. Chat Noir laughed and bounced back a step, absolutely not concerned that he was currently balancing on a strip of metal one inch thick, three storeys off the ground. 

“Are you cold, ‘ _Brrr_ ’incess?” 

“Are you crazy, Chat! Get down from there before you fall. You nearly gave me a heart attack.” 

He shrugged and performed some sort of strange slither, which should not have looked as good as it did. His eyes were reflecting the light from the street and her room, two spots of bright, glowing green in a boy otherwise made of shadows. A small part of her mind noted that he’d lost the santa hat from earlier, although his tinsel collar was still in place. She cleared her throat and tried to reset her thoughts along with the conversation. 

“Hi Chat.” 

He beamed. “Hi.” 

Thank goodness Tikki was more spatially aware than her. The lack of a little red demigod anywhere in the vicinity made Marinette breathe an internal sigh of relief. She must have fled for the bedroom when she saw Chat Noir coming. 

“What brings you to my balcony tonight?”

“I’m performing my civic duty and delivering some of Santa’s presents for him,” he said, looking slightly bashful. With a flourish he brought his left arm out from behind his back. “Ignore the wrapping… it’s really hard to do it justice when you have perma-claws.” 

Despite herself, Marinette’s eyebrow arched. “Yeah, no kidding.” 

“Hey!” He faux pouted. 

“I’m joking.” She said. It was a monstrosity sure, with tape and ribbon snaking everywhere and more than a couple of rips in the paper. But how well would she do if she had, like Chat said, perma-claws. She reached out and took the travesty from him with a smile. “Thank you, Chat.” 

“You have to open it now.” 

“It’s not Christmas yet.” 

“I know but…” His ears drooped and seriously, how the hell did he do that? They were made of leather. “… how else am I going to see your reaction?” 

“It better not be something expensive.” 

“It’s not. Honest.” 

She twisted it around, looking for the best place to open it. Then, with a smile, she grabbed Chat’s hand and dragged it down one side of the wrapping. In her grip, Chat’s hand flexed a little. Kitties are built to rip things. 

Oh. 

_Oh._

“Oh.” 

“I know it’s not much.” His hand was rubbing his neck. One of his nervous tics. “I saw it today at this Christmas market I was at and I thought of you straight away and… yeah. It’s a bit scruffy but it’s handmade and I know you’re big into arts and crafts so…” he shrugged. 

In her lap was a medium sized mason jar. It was coated entirely in matt black paint, four coats to be exact, Royal and Langnickel Essentials Acrylic, shade Mars Black… and on the side, in large neon green and yellow letters were the words ‘Hug Jar’, painted in large scrolling script. She didn’t need to open it to know that inside it there were twenty-four circular wooden discs, each painted a different bright colour and block printed HUG written on both sides. 

Adrien had worked for days on his gift. And, while it was certainly not the best item on their market stall (that had been her hat and fingerless glove set with fold over mittens that had a cat face on them). He’d poured so much love and attention into it. 

He’d been so scared that no one would want it. 

And that was why, more than any other reason, she’d wanted to buy it so badly. 

Even though he hadn’t made it for her. Or made it with her in mind. And it certainly had no sentimental worth to him. She’d wanted it. 

She’d been so sad when she’d lost out. She’d told herself it was okay… it wasn’t personal to her anyway. But now. 

Now, her silly kitty had made it personal to her in such a wonderful way. 

“Thank you, Chat. I love it.” 

He lit up. And there was some small, traitorous part of her heart that loved him for it. 

“Okay,” he said, beaming. “I’m gonna go, because, patrol. But… with your permission…” he lay a hand on top of the mason jar lid. Marinette smiled and held it out.

“Help yourself.” 

He unscrewed the lid and reached in to rumble around and fish out a token. A red one, with black spots… but Adrien had only painted in block colours. 

“I’m going to cash it in now.” 

She blinked, looking down at the little wooden token with the HUG emblazoned across it. “Are you sure? You don’t want the interest to accrue on it?” She set the jar down gently, reverently, to one side and held out her arms. 

He almost stumbled forwards. The sigh he breathed out against her shoulder as he was enveloped in her arms was shaky. She slid her hands up his back and trailed her fingers against the back of his neck. His own arms came up to clutch at the blanket that was, miraculously, still around her shoulders. She could feel minute tremors running through him and when he pulled back his eyes were over wet and gleaming. 

A second later and he pulled back the act. She almost wondered if she’d been mistaken, except the mask below his eyes gleamed wet in the streetlight. 

“Good luck tonight, Chat. And thank you.” 

He nodded, and a second later he was gone. 

Marinette sat there for a while in silence, not even acknowledging Tikki’s reappearance as she stared after her partner… alone and choosing to run around Paris on a dark, winter night rather than be at home or hanging out with friends. There was a lot to unpack, and a lot she knew she was missing. 

Adrien’s gift. 

Now made so very personal, so very special by Chat Noir. 

Tikki floated up to perch on the railing. “You’re very lucky, Marinette.”

She smiled and reached up to scrub the heel of her hand across her eyes. “I know.” 

…

Adrien’s reaction the next day when she told him that Chat Noir himself had bought his Hug Jar, earning Adrien the brand new award 'Most Famous Sale' was just the icing on the cake.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Miraculous Fanworks December Advent Calender.


End file.
